Scenic cruising College Fjord

Deep within the northwest reaches of Prince William Sound are Harriman and College Fjords, with their numerous tidewater and valley glaciers. This is one of the most spectacularly glaciated areas of Alaska! The Harvard Glacier, with a length 24 miles (39 km) and a face of 1.5-miles (2.5 km), is the largest in the area.

In 1899, Edward Henry Harriman led an ambitious expedition of discovery into coastal Alaska. Aboard the ship George W. Elder was assembled an impressive list of participants including scientists, artists, photographers, biologists, botanists, geologists and writers. Among them was world renowned naturalist John Muir and photographer Edward S. Curtis. They returned from this expedition with what is still considered an exceptionally precious scientific collection of more than 100 trunks of specimens and some 5,000 illustrations and photographs. As they traveled the length of what is now known as College Fjord, the expedition members named the glaciers for prestigious East Coast colleges, including Yale, Amherst, Barnard, and Harvard.